Time Turned Fragile
by MissingEden
Summary: There are things the Marauders should never get ahold of. A time turner is one of them. And that was before they broke it...No slash, unfortunately.
1. Spare Time

**Disclaimer**: I'm not J.K.R. Unless my parents have been keeping something from me.

_(A/N: I once watched "Window of Opportunity" (the "Groundhog Day" episode of Stargate SG-1) six times in one day. This was the result.)_

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Chapter 1: Spare Time 

In a third floor lavatory at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, four boys were holding a conference.

"This is bad, even for you, Prongs," said one in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Oh, come on! Name one bad idea I've ever had!" another said, clearly offended.

"Just last term you had us breaking into the girls' dormitory to steal their knickers," muttered a third, sounding as though he was trying not to laugh.

"Well, how was I to know they had that stupid sliding staircase?"

"We had detention for a month," said the fourth morosely.

"Are you _blushing_, Wormtail? We didn't even _get_ to the dormitory!"

"Not exactly a surprise, is it? He's probably never seen a girl's knickers in his life."

"That's not the p-point!"

"Shut up, all of you! Listen, I've got—"

The door opened suddenly and all four snapped to attention, one cracking his head smartly on the washbasin.

"What are you lot up to? Making trouble again, I expect?"

James Potter made a show of dragging himself to his feet, stretching and yawning.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Perfectly innocent, of course. Well, must be going." He pushed past…whoever it was, some prefect whose name he couldn't be bothered to remember, and the other three followed in short order.

"You're mental, Prongs," Sirius Black said earnestly. "You don't even know who that was, do you?"

"Why? Was it someone important?"

"It was only the Head Boy, you git!" said Remus Lupin, looking at him with exasperation.

"He isn't! I remember him. He's just a prefect."

"That was _last_ year, mate."

"Was it? Ah, well. He'll get over it."

"Before or after he puts us in detention for the rest of our lives?"

"Well, if that's your attitude, you can stay behind, Moony." He cocked an eyebrow at the remaining two. "Anyone else? Padfoot?"

"I'm in. You've got the best bad ideas of anyone I know."

"Wormtail?"

Peter Pettigrew looked reluctant. "Oh, well, I—I suppose…"

"Right, then. Moony, go do your homework or something. The rest of us will be off having _fun_."

"You're only going to get into trouble, you know," he said to their retreating backs. James waved back at him over his shoulder.

"'Bye, Moony!"

"Dammit," he muttered, sighing heavily as he caught up with them.

OoOoOo

"Has he asked you out again?"

"Of course he has. He's done it every day since fourth year." The voice caught James's attention and his stomach lurched unpleasantly. It was Lily Evans, and she was talking about _him._

"Er…you two go on. Padfoot, c'mere.

Sirius gave him a questioning look. "What—oh, not again! She's been shooting you down for two years, mate. I think it's safe to say she's not interested. And she's got Annabella Trifid with her; you know how much she fancies me—"

"They _all_ fancy you," James snapped. "Look, all I need you to do is keep her busy while I talk to Evans."

"Chat her up, more like," muttered Sirius bitterly.

They walked slightly behind the two girls, catching one last snippet of conversation before they interrupted.

"You talk about him a lot, you know. You even do it in your sleep."

"Do I? Well, I expect even my subconscious hates him."

"Not exactly—"

"Morning, Evans," James said brightly, falling into step beside her and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"You again. What do you want now?"

"Merely the pleasure of your company. Up for another round of I-ask-you-out- and-you-say-no? What are you doing on Saturday?"

"I'll be burying your body if you don't piss off."

"Oh, why do you hurt him when he loves you so?" said Sirius. Lily's friend caught sight of him and immediately began fussing with her hair.

"All right, Anna?" he asked her without enthusiasm, and then to James, more quietly: "You owe me."

James gave him a wolfish grin before to turning to Lily once again. "That a yes, then, Evans?"

Lily didn't even look at him. "I suggest you take that hand off me unless you fancy losing it, Potter."

"Why? Have you got somewhere else you'd like me to put it?" James said, or rather started to say, the end of the sentence having been cut off by the appearance of Remus and Peter.

"Got tired of waiting," Remus said shortly. He nodded a vague greeting to the two girls, then glared at James. "Let's just get on with it, all right?"

Lily eyed the four of them suspiciously. "Get on with what?"

"Can't say, I'm afraid," James said, putting as much distance between them as he could without actually running.

"Top secret," Sirius added in confidential tones as he followed James. "Security risk, you understand."

"You _idiot_!" Remus exploded the second they were out of earshot. "Are you _trying_ to get us caught?"

"But we haven't even done anything yet," Peter said in a small voice. Remus ignored him.

"And the _only_ reason I'm going along with whatever ridiculous thing you've got planned is because—"

"Because you haven't got anything better to do?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Because I don't even want to think about what'll happen if I don't," he finished.

"And here I thought you liked my ridiculous plans," James said in a sad and wholly unconvincing tone.

"Besides, what else have we got to do until full moon?" said Sirius.

"Say it a bit louder, Padfoot," Remus muttered. "Parts of Romania might not have heard you."

"I said, WHAT ELSE HAVE WE—"

"Oh, shut up," Remus said, but even he couldn't help laughing. "All right, what're you really up to?"

"It's going to be something brilliant," said Peter.

"The suspense is killing me," Sirius said, already sounding bored.

"Just tell us, will you?" Remus snapped.

"We," James said with a seemingly eternal pause for effect, "are going to steal a Time-Turner."

OoOoOo

"You're mental," Remus whispered. "Absolutely mad, all three of you."

"Oh, shut it, Moony," James said in an equally quiet voice. "If you think it's such a crap idea, find something else to do."

"You do know this is illegal, don't you? If we're caught anywhere _near_—"

"Illegal, eh?" Sirius said in a bemused sort of way. "Reminds me of a few other _slight_ violations we've committed. Certain _monthly_ violations, perhaps?"

"That's _different_—"

"You know full well it isn't," James hissed. "And if you lot don't shut up arguing, we really _are_ going to get caught."

"It's all very well for you and that bloody cloak of yours," Remus said sourly.

James had a tendency to ignore people when he was losing an argument and kept his mouth shut as the four of them trudged solemnly down the hallway, though as far as anyone else could see, there were only three. It had nothing to do with the angle or lighting; it was the fact that James was well hidden in the folds of his invisibility cloak.

"And honestly," Remus went on, refusing to drop the subject, "what good will it do us when you're the only one who's invisible? How do you think the rest of us look milling about in the corridors talking to ourselves?"

"Will you please shut up?" James said. It was very difficult to look irritated while invisible, so he settled for sounding annoyed. "McGonagall will kill us twice over if she catches us lurking in front of her office."

"Then how exactly do you plan on sneaking in there to nick the stupid thing in first place?"

"I'm invisible, Moony. How do you _think_ I'm planning on doing it? Look, she's still dealing with our little diversion—"

"Did you really have to stop up _all_ the toilets?"

"Yes. Anyway, that'll give us half an hour at least. All you three have got to do is keep watch while I get it, all right?"

"And just what are we supposed to do if someone sees us?" asked Remus, rapidly running out of patience with the whole situation.

"Looks like we're about to find out," Sirius said.

Scuffling down the hallway with his alarmingly shaped nose roughly a centimeter from the pages of the book he was reading was—

"_Snivellus_," Sirius said sweetly, a horribly malicious grin spreading over his face. "How are we doing this fine evening? Greasing up the reading materials, I see."

Severus Snape frowned intensely, his hand shifting towards the pocket that held his wand. "You—"

_"Expelliarmus!"_ Sirius said instantly.

"Just leave it," Remus said, knowing it would probably not affect the situation in the slightest. "We've got better things to do."

"Oh, I've always got time for old Snivellus. What do you reckon, Moony? A nice Bat-Bogey hex for our dear little friend? Perhaps we'll petrify him and leave him in the girl's loo..."

A sharp, invisible kick struck Sirius's shin, and a low, invisible voice said, "We'll get him later, Padfoot."

Sirius gave a disappointed sigh, but relented. "It's your lucky day, Snivelly. Go disgust someone else for a while." He muttered an inaudible spell under his breath and sent Snape's wand skittering down the corridor, snickering minutely as Snape chased after it.

"Miserable git," James said cheerily. "Wish me luck, boys."

OoOoOo

Gaining uninvited access to Minerva McGonagall's office was no easy task, and it took James the best part of ten minutes just to get the door open.

"Hurry _up_," Remus said, attempting to shield the seemingly independent movement of the locked door from anyone who might be approaching. "It's already been twenty minutes—"

"I would if this stupid bloody door would just—" The lock clicked and James exhaled triumphantly, "—open."

He crossed the floor as though afraid it might drop out from under him, but his target didn't seem to be anywhere within eyesight.

"Probably in the desk, then..."

A few quiet words under his breath and the drawers flew open, the lowest on the left revealing a glinting miniature hourglass.

"Excellent," James said.

_"Prongs!"_

James whirled around. "Didn't I tell you lot to stay—?"

"There's nothing to keep watch for! McGonagall's on her way back!"

"She's _what?"_

Sirius shot into the room behind Remus. "Someone must have told her, bet you anything it was Snivellus—"

"It doesn't matter! We've got to get out of here before she sees us!"

"We're dead, she'll kill us—"

"Shut up, Wormtail. I'm trying to think," James snapped. "How long have we got?"

"Er..." Sirius peered around the corner and immediately drew back. "About four seconds."

"Right," James said hurriedly. "Right. No problem. I'll just—_Accio!_"—the Time-Turner flew into his outstretched palm— "We can just—"

"No we can't!" Remus said. "You've got no idea what sort of thing might—"

"It can't be worse than what McGonagall will do to us! This is _illegal,_ you said it yourself. Now do you want to be expelled or do you want to help me work this stupid thing?"

Remus paused, looking horribly unsure. "It's got to go round all four of us," he said with a great sense of urgency, "or someone will get left behind."

"Look, you've got to stand closer, the chain isn't—"

"Get _off_, Wormtail, that's my foot you're standing on—"

"No, you're doing it wrong—"

"Quit shoving—"

"Be careful, it's—"

_Clink._

"—fragile."

For a moment they stood silently, assessing the damage done by the fall.

"You've broken it—"

"Doesn't matter, just pick it up—"

"Got it!"

"On three, then. One—"

"D'you think it'll hurt?"

"Shut up, Wormtail—two—"

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

"Don't make me hex you, Moony."

"I'm telling you, something's bound to go—"

The four of them were propelled abruptly backwards through a tunnel of shapes and colors that refused to focus into more than aesthetic migraine.

"—wrong," Remus tried to say, but the words seemed to stretch out from his vocal cords with out making any sound at all.

"Was it supposed to do that?" Sirius asked loudly, struggling to be heard over the sound of Peter being violently sick.

"Er..." Remus checked over his surroundings, his typical worried expression intensifying.

"'Course it was," said James firmly.

Remus was still scanning the room with a look of increasing dismay. "I don't think so," he said slowly. "What're we doing in the dormitory?"

"If McGonagall isn't shouting the school down, it's done what it's supposed to."

"But we've still got pajamas on, this isn't what—"

"How many times have I got to tell you?" James said, his voice now edged with slight irritation. "There's nothing to worry about."

"Of course there—DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR!"

Peter pulled away from the door as if it had burned him. "What? What's—I didn't—"

"Just how thick is it possible for one human being to be?" James said rhetorically.

Peter looked even more confused than usual. "I was only—breakfast is nearly over, we'll be late for Charms…"

"Oh no we won't," Sirius said, his tone declaring that this was perfectly obvious. "We're already there."

"Ah. What?"

"We've gone back in time," Remus explained gently.

"I _know_ that."

"So," he went on, clearly the only one with any patience left, "there'll be another set of us somewhere out there, won't there?"

"Er…yes?"

"And how do you suppose you'd react if you ran into another Peter Pettigrew?" James asked impatiently. "We can't be seen, not by anybody."

"No problem," said Sirius. "We'll use the map to keep track of our…other…selves, and have loads of free time besides. Moony, you had it last."

Remus was already digging through his book bag, eventually thrusting a faded sheet of parchment at Sirius.

"Right. Let's see…here we are in the dormitory…and…er…Prongs?"

"What?" asked James, who hadn't been paying attention at all.

"Have a look at this."

James stared intently at the map, frowning more severely the longer he looked at it.

"Ah. That could be a problem."

"_What _could be a—oh. Oh, dammit…"

"Well," Peter said hesitantly, "Maybe it's—"

"It isn't. It's never been wrong before, and it isn't now."

"How could it—?"

But Remus was unable to find an appropriate end to his sentence, and as they looked down at what was most definitely _one_ set of marauders, it was evident that something strange had happened.


	2. Time and Again

**Disclaimer**: No, I have not morphed into J.K.R. since last we met. Unfortunately.

_(A/N: I am not coming up with cooler chapter titles. Not even if you ask nicely.)_

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Chapter 2: Time and Again 

"Right," James said, pacing the length of the dormitory with a severe expression as though it were a very meaningful activity. "Right."

"James, you've been walking back and forth saying 'right' for the last fifteen minutes," Remus said pointedly. "Don't you think we ought to—?"

"I think what _you_ ought to do is shut up," James snapped, so viciously that no one said anything for the next several minutes.

"Well, I've got a suggestion if nobody else has," Sirius said, studying his fingernails with purposeful disinterest.

"Have you?" said James. He was really beginning to loathe his friend's penchant for melodrama.

"Yes, I just said, didn't I?"

"_Sirius_," James said warningly.

"I think we should go to breakfast," he said, and descended the steps into the common room without another word.

"Padfoot," said James, rather loudly as he was saying it for the third time in a row without being answered. Again Sirius did not reply, acting for all the world as though there weren't three other boys directly behind him. "Sirius," —they followed him, still resolutely silent, down from Gryffindor tower— "_Sirius,_" —they waited for a moving staircase to settle into its proper position— "SIRIUS!" —and arrived in the Great Hall just in time to be accosted by a large, disgruntled barn owl. James saw only a curious flash of red before Sirius snatched away the letter tied to its leg and shoved it hastily into his pocket.

"Sorry, did you need something?" Sirius asked lightly.

James's hazel eyes narrowed as he stared at Sirius, trying to read some form of guilt in his expression. "What was—?"

"Not now, we'll be late for Charms," Sirius said before he could finish, which James found odd as Sirius hadn't been wearing a watch and had never before expressed an interest in being on time.

Peter groaned audibly. "I thought we did all this so we _wouldn't_ have to go to class."

"Yes, well, best laid plans..." Remus replied vaguely, looking thoroughly confused with the whole situation. "At any rate, it looks as though we've only gone back a few hours more than we meant to. I expect it'll just sort itself out." He coughed uncomfortably; this was exactly the sort of thing Sirius and James often said, and exactly the sort of thing that always seemed to get them into trouble.

From then on the day was fairly uneventful; Flitwick had given them all detentions when they turned up half an hour late, but this was nothing out of the ordinary as they never seemed to get through a week without one; a double of Potions was spent in quiet mockery of Professor Slughorn, referred to by Sirius as the only person alive who drooled over Lily Evans more than James did (James had tried to hex him under their table for that, but missed and shattered several nearby jars instead); best of all, Professor McGonagall had not killed them on sight, assuring that the state of the broken Time-Turner which was still slung loosely around James's neck had done no lasting damage to the one that presently sat inside her desk.

Heading back to the common room after their last lesson (a particularly excruciating period with the ghostly Professor Binns), they felt a good deal better than when they'd left it.

"I can't believe we've actually gotten away with it!" Peter said for about the fortieth time.

"Dunno if it counts once we've broken it, Wormtail," said Sirius. Peter frowned, not much liking the idea.

"It's the principle of the thing," James said indignantly. "Doesn't matter what happens after we get it, the point is we _got_ it." He paused, apparently feeling a need to further the point, and added, "And we still get away with loads of stuff."

"Which is what makes me the worst Prefect this school's ever had," said Remus with a wry smile. "Sort of thing I should put a stop to, really. Shame it's so entertaining."

He made to keep moving, but James put an arm out and stopped him.

"All right, Moony?" he asked, his tone of sudden concern deepening as he noted the pale, withdrawn look his friend had taken on over the past few hours. "How's the furry little problem?"

"Fine at the moment," Remus said without looking at him, clearly wishing the subject had not been brought up at all. "Less than a week before it isn't."

Sirius hit Remus roughly around the head with his rucksack. "Keep looking that cheerful and people will start mistaking you for Moaning Myrtle, Moony."

Remus laughed weakly, but still looked rather ill. "I—" He stopped speaking before his sentence had been properly started, for his audience's attention had shifted suddenly and decidedly elsewhere.

Both James and Sirius's eyes were locked on the greasy black-haired head bobbing down the corridor opposite them.

"I am going to _kill_ him," Sirius said flatly.

"Have to beat me to it, then," said James.

Peter watched the two of them apprehensively; Remus hardly even breathed, unsure what to do next.

"Tough deciding what to do with him, really," James mused. "Shouldn't levitate him, he'd grease up the whole hallway, someone could slip..."

"Forget magic, I'll _beat_ him to death."

"Nah, you'd be washing your hands for ages."

Sirius gave his short bark of a laugh, and James grinned back at him.

"OI! SNIVELLUS!" James bellowed as Sirius continued to laugh madly. "I'D LIKE A WORD!"

Snape whirled around, wand raised, and saw that once again the odds did not favor him to win this fight. "Always the four of you, isn't it?" he yelled back, but he did not take a single step in their direction. "You'd never dare take me on alone, Potter!"

Sirius continued to laugh, possibly louder than before, but James no longer saw humor in the situation. His eyes had gone suddenly dark and cold.

"Are you calling me a coward, Snape?" he said in a quiet voice that nevertheless carried quite clearly to where Snape was standing.

"And if I am?" Snape snarled.

"Then I'll just have to—NO, SIRIUS! PUT HIM DOWN!"

Sirius flicked his wand lazily, dragging Snape through the air in imitation of the movement. "Hm?"

"I said—I said put him down." The words felt heavy and unnatural as they left his mouth, but he tried to look stern as he said them.

Sirius paused, wand still raised, and turned, a puzzled expression sliding across his handsome face. "What? You can't mean Snivellus?"

"How many other people are you levitating, Padfoot? Drop him."

Very, very slowly, Sirius began to lower his wand arm, his eyes fixed on James with the surprised and slightly guilty look of a puppy caught using the carpet in an impolite manner. Snape hit the floor heavily and Sirius walked off to stand with Remus and Peter, muttering and shaking his head.

"Satisfied, Snivelly?" James said, his tone once again snide and mildly insulting. "One-on-one, like you wanted, and I'll still wipe the floor with you...'course that might leave it a bit slimier than I found it, but..." he shrugged, earning the approving laughter of the other three. "Any last words?"

Whatever it was Snape had planned on saying (James hazarded a guess at something his own mother would have been none too pleased with), James did not hear it. Something icy and deeply unsettling had seeped into the pit of his stomach and pulled, flinging him backward through a complete mess of surroundings that were moving far too fast to be processed properly.

Then he was picking himself up off the floor, taking in the unpleasant sound of someone's weak stomach sorting itself out on the carpet, and wondering what the hell had just happened.

He was not on the cold stone floor of the deserted corridor in which he had been about to duel Severus Snape.

He was in the sixth year boys' dormitory in Gryffindor tower, and someone was yelling very loudly into his left ear.

"—and we've been mates for ages, but there's a bloody line, James! I know you've got absolutely no sense of responsibility, but this is just a whole new level of—"

And so on.

James briefly considered ignoring him, but after five minutes it was clear he'd have to act in the interest of preserving his hearing.

"All right! I heard you the first thirty times, Remus, give it a rest—"

Surprisingly, Remus fell immediately silent, apparently waiting for James to explain himself.

"I—er—" James paused, scowling at Remus, knowing he was wrong and hating it intensely. "I'm sorry, then. I shouldn't have—well—" Remus nodded, accepting this as the best he could manage; Peter, whom he seriously doubted had ever been angry in the first place, smiled; Sirius, however, still looked away from him.

"What's with you?" James asked, a small line creasing the space between his eyebrows. He'd always liked Sirius best of the three of them, they'd hardly ever fought before...yet Sirius was most certainly avoiding his eye...

"Nothing," he said firmly. Then he changed his mind. "No—I want to know what you were playing at, running away like that!"

James felt his face grow hot. "Running away? From _Snivellus_? _Me_?"

"Oh, excellent, you can hear. That clears it all up, thanks."

"What are you on about? I wasn't running from anything, you—"

"Oh, my mistake. Must just be _my_ strange definition of 'running away' that involves leaving so you don't have to fight someone."

"That was nothing to do with me! I'll go and find him now if that's what you—"

"Nothing to do with you? And I suppose that Time-Turner works without you touching it, does it?"

James drew the long chain out of his shirt and thrust the hourglass under Sirius's nose.

Sirius examined it for a long moment. "Oh yeah. Forgot we broke it."

Then they both burst out laughing.

Remus and Peter sat on the ends of their respective beds, mesmerized by this exchange. Finally Remus coughed loudly enough for them to take notice, and they turned to face him, Sirius still snickering minutely, James's face twitching every few seconds with the hint of a poorly suppressed smile.

"Intriguing though the insanity of your friendship is, we have a very, very big problem on our hands," said Remus with a severe expression that reminded James of Professor McGonagall. "Obviously the Time-Turner's malfunctioned—"

"Has it?"

"Shut up—and I think I know what's happened."

"Breakfast!" said Sirius suddenly.

"Ye—what? No! There's no time for—Padfoot!"

But Sirius was already through the door and down the steps, out into the common room and through the portrait hole before the rest of them had gotten out of their pajamas.

"He must be really hungry," Peter said, pulling his robes on very quickly so as not to be left behind.

James shrugged and smiled broadly, but Remus still looked very put-out.

"Oh, lighten up, Moony, there's only about four days left before the summer holidays, can't sulk now!"

"But that's what I've been trying to tell—"

"Hey, Evans!" James said excitedly. Remus gave up on his sentence then and there.

Lily, halfway through the portrait hole, turned at the sound of her name, and the look on her face suggested she regretted this immensely.

"I—ah—" James stuttered, but no words came to him. Her startlingly green eyes met his for only another second before she turned with a look of express disgust and ducked out into the corridor.

Just as Remus and Peter had expected and Lily had feared, James followed her.

"Evans—"

She did not respond except to quicken her pace slightly.

"It's a felony to say 'good morning' now, is it?"

Remus and Peter exchanged dark looks; Lily sped up again.

"Just say _something_, will you?" James said exasperatedly, still trailing along after her.

Lily stopped so suddenly that James nearly crashed into her. He straightened instantly, flushing slightly under the force of her gaze. He couldn't remember when she'd ever stood quite so close to him...he thought it a great pity that it was only so she could tell him off.

"And if I don't?" she snapped, reminding him forcibly of someone he'd rather not think of when faced with a pretty girl. "What're you going to do, hex me until I go out with you, Potter?"

"No—I wouldn't—"

Lily's expression did not soften in the slightest. "Why not? You do it to everyone else, why make exceptions?"

"I—because—ah—"

"Tell you what, why don't you just carry on jinxing everyone you walk past, and I'll just carry on remembering that I'm not five years old, and hopefully we won't have to have this discussion again." The way she said this made it sound a bit like a threat.

"But—"

"Good-_bye_, Potter."

"Vicious, that one," Sirius said mildly. James was in too foul a mood to contemplate the mystery of where he had come from. "Don't know what you see in her." His gaze drifted down the corridor just in time for a last glimpse of her retreating back. "Well, I know what _I'd_ see in her," he admitted.

James did not laugh. "Don't talk about her like that," he snapped. Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow. "That's not why—I don't _know_ why—I just—"

"—can't talk properly?" Sirius finished.

James sighed. "Not around her I can't."

Sirius shrugged. "Bound to happen eventually. Girls are mad like that."

"All that aside," said Remus tersely, now looking more cross than ever, "aren't you forgetting something?"

"Er—Potions!" James exclaimed suddenly, apparently having forgotten such a thing existed. "Forgot we had it first today, at least Slughorn might go easy on—"

"No," Remus snapped, impatient to make his point, "and if you'd bothered listening to anything I've said in the last twenty minutes, you'd have noticed that we do _not_ have Potions first today." He glared at the other three, most severely at James. "Do you know what we _have_ got first today?"

"I expect you're going to tell us."

"Charms," he said without acknowledging the interruption. "And do you know what we are going to have first tomorrow? _Charms_. And do you know what we are going to have first every day until you work out what in the name of Merlin's florescent underpants you did to that Time-Turner?"

"Bowling?"

But for once nobody laughed, because for once there was nothing to laugh at.

"Congratulations, James," Remus said darkly. "You've created a time-loop."


	3. Bad Timing

**Disclaimer**: I'm just going to sit here for a minute and try really hard to be J.K Rowling...(contemplative silence)...nope. Still don't own this stuff.

(_A/N: __You get that it crushes my soul when you don't leave reviews, right?)_

* * *

Chapter 3: Bad Timing 

Sirius was fighting back a strong desire to jab Peter in the eye with his own quill.

"We've been at this for ages, Wormtail. How did you _still_ manage…_that_?"

Peter's shoulders slumped. After four straight days of the same lesson, James knew as much of the subject matter as Slughorn himself, and Sirius was probably capable of doing the classwork in his sleep. Remus spent most of the class looking pale, peaky, and unhappy, but had mastered the potion easily enough. Peter, however, had managed only to discover four completely different and equally disastrous ways to make something which was more or less entirely unlike a hiccupping solution.

"Well…" said Peter, his round face screwed up in a concentrated effort as he brandished his wand at his cauldron, though this was having no noticeable effect on its contents, "…it does look a bit…_yellow_…"

"A _bit?_ It looks like a liquefied canary, Peter."

James didn't bother saying that it very well could have been, considering that Lily had sent one flying at his head ten minutes ago when he'd asked her out for the third time that morning. He didn't bother because he was trying to _think_.

"Er…should it be…_smoking_ like that?"

"No, and it shouldn't be on fire ei—Prongs?"

James had suddenly stood, and with a little more purpose in his usual swagger, was headed straight towards—

"Evans," he said when his face was roughly an inch from hers, "what is your problem?"

"Well," she said coolly and without taking her eyes off her cauldron, "just now it's that some complete tosser is hovering over my workspace."

James didn't so much as blink. "I just want to know what it is about me that bothers you so bloody much, and I'm not moving from this spot until you give me an answer."

Lily looked up at him, emerald eyes perfectly calm, and said, "It's more the fact that you _exist_, if you know what I mean..."

James tried to stare her down, but Lily didn't say a single word to him for the remainder of the period.

Girls really did have _terribly_ long memories.

OoOoOo

In the common room some hours later, James was sprawled across an overstuffed chair and _still_ sulking.

"Prongs," Sirius began gently.

"What?" said James with marked disinterest. His voice was bitter and somewhat strained.

In retrospect, Sirius thought, he hadn't really had anything to say. At least not anything that would help. He looked hopefully at Remus.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt to…see some other people?" Remus suggested. It took every ounce of restraint he possessed to keep from saying this in his I-told-you-so voice. "I don't know if you've noticed, James, but you're actually quite popular. Any other girl would be—"

But James wasn't listening. Wasn't it obvious enough by now that he didn't _want_ any other girl? Lily was different. Lily was _special_. Lily was…was…

…was walking straight past him with Mary Macdonald and ignoring him completely.

Remus and Sirius each grabbed one of his arms, holding him back the moment he tried to stand. "Don't," Remus said warningly.

"But—"

"See her face?" Sirius muttered, dropping his voice so only the other Marauders could hear. "Does she look like she wants to talk to you?"

Now that it had been pointed out to him, James noticed she _did_ look a bit upset. But it couldn't have anything to do with him…

"—so maybe the owl just got a bit, you know, lost?" Mary was saying. She had an arm around Lily's shoulder and was speaking in the same comforting tone James's own friends had just used on him.

"N-no," said Lily. Her voice was shaky and she kept sweeping angrily at her eyes. "She s-sent it back. She h-hates me…"

A searing anger boiled uncomfortably in the pit of James's stomach. Someone had made his Lily cry. That was not to be tolerated.

"Whatever stupid thing you're thinking, you've got eight seconds to do it, Prongs," Remus said, lifting the arm that wasn't restraining James to glance briefly at the watch he had had to reset so often over the last few days.

The watch ticked on. James had only enough time to blink and open his mouth before the day reset itself as well.

"Double dammit," said James sullenly. He scanned the dormitory, decided he didn't like the look of it, and stuck his head under the pillow.

"Prongs, what _are_ you doing?" Remus asked (at least, he thought it was Remus; he couldn't be sure without getting up, and he _really_ didn't want to do that).

"Exactly what it looks like, mostly."

"It _looks_ like you are still in bed being a complete sloth with no intention of getting up for lessons, but that cannot possibly be what you are doing."

"Astoundingly enough, Moony, it is."

"You're joking. Get up."

James didn't move. "No, see, I've put quite a bit of thought into it," he said, which was a lie, "and I have decided not to bother."

"You can't just lie there because Evans—"

"It's nothing to do with Evans," said James, which was an even bigger lie. "It's just that it doesn't, on the whole, actually _matter_ if I get up and go to Charms. Because I've done it already. Four times. And if I don't go, and I get detention, I won't even have time to serve it before I have _the exact same_ Charms lesson to get up and be late for."

"But—" Remus sounded completely baffled. "You _can't_ just—you _have_ to—"

A sigh which James was almost certain belonged to Sirius drifted across the dormitory. "Come on, Prongs," said Sirius, "I want breakfast."

_Only because it's you_ _asking_, James thought but didn't say.

OoOoOo

After the fourth bit of bacon he'd managed to land in Bertram Aubrey's orange juice without his noticing, James was bored again.

Remus seemed to sense trouble stirring and gave James a warning look. "_Please_ don't do anything—"

An enormous clattering arose from the Slytherin table as nearly a hundred juice-filled goblets floated several feet from their initial positions and abruptly emptied themselves over the head of whichever student they found to be nearest.

"—stupid."

James threw his head back and laughed, though luckily this was rather inconspicuous as practically every member of the other three houses was howling with laughter.

Remus was employing every bit of willpower he had in order to look properly disapproving of this, but when he spotted a particularly aggressive piece of toast repeatedly slamming itself into the head of a fourth year whom he particularly disliked, he had to bury his face in his hands and just hope James wouldn't catch him cracking up. Sirius flicked his wand at Peter to expel the chunk of boiled egg that had lodged itself in his throat while he was laughing, and James immediately redirected it to hit a rather unfortunate Slytherin girl in the back of the head. She didn't seem to notice.

In all fairness, they couldn't _really_ get in trouble for this. _Technically._

"Prongs?" Remus said suddenly.

James was quite intent on the havoc he was wreaking, and had to put some effort into dragging his eyes away. "Yes?"

"Why don't we go…_have fun_?"

James looked positively evil just then. "I thought you never ask."

OoOoOo

It was a fantastic day to be a Marauder, and a terrible day to be anyone else.

After the initial morning fiasco (which, in a building populated with hundreds of underage wizards and rivalries older than every castle resident added together, could not be linked to any one person) they proceeded to Charms in immensely high spirits. James and Sirius switched seats every time Professor Flitwick had turned around for twenty minutes, and when this got boring, switched other people's seats as well. By the end of the period they had moved all the furniture at least once and Flitwick had sent himself to the hospital wing, convinced he was coming down with something.

Remus had rather looked forward to Potions. Slughorn had been making his usual rounds of the classroom and once again given his analysis of Remus's work to the floor rather than to his face, and Remus had said politely (as he'd wanted to for several years), "It's really _so_ much harder to hear you when you're cowering, Professor."

Though it made no noticeable difference, Slughorn drew himself up to his full height.

"What's that, Lupin?"

Remus, pale and sickly though he currently was, struck a much more imposing figure and looked at Slughorn with something halfway between a smirk and a glare. "Well, you see, sound doesn't carry _quite_ as well to students you're too frightened to actually _look_ at, sir, so I'm finding it a bit hard—"

Slughorn had already turned five separate shades of red before he finally managed to splutter, "Get out—get out of my class—go to—head of house—NOW!"

Remus still wore the same befuddling grin. "Of course. Never was worth bothering with since you learned about my _condition_, was I?" And with a decidedly wolfish grin, he slipped out into the hall.

Slughorn smoothed what was left of his straw-colored hair and straightened his robes. "Now, if there are no further interruptions—"

James, Sirius and Peter were already out of their seats. "Don't think we can stay, Professor," James said cheerfully. "Things to do, you understand."

Slughorn was now confused as well as furious. Two of his best students (and that other boy) were suddenly leaving his classroom as though this would not be a problem for him. This was a serious loss of control.

"Potter! Black!" He paused. He could never seem to remember the other one's name. "Er…Peterman! _Get back here_!"

"It's _Pettigrew_," Peter snapped, glowing red with embarrassment but looking very serious. "And—and I've always thought you were a complete arse, by the way."

Remus was waiting for them just outside the door.

"We left in protest," Sirius said.

"I heard," said Remus. He still looked a little shaky. "That was…I feel so much _better _now."

James laughed at this. "'Course you do, mate."

"I can't _believe_ I said that to a teacher. I…I'm a prefect…"

"Prefect or not, that's fun, you know it is. And we can't even get in trouble for—Moony? _Moony!"_

Remus heard this as if from very far away. There was a sickly roaring in his ears, and he could feel himself rapidly approaching the place where his mind and body ceased to be anything that even remotely resembled Remus Lupin.

_The hallway is a terrible place to turn into a werewolf,_ he thought, and then he thought nothing at all.


	4. Finding Time

**Disclaimer:** The deal with Satan fell through. Still not J.K.

_(A/N: For those of you longing to call OOC on Peter for the teeny bit of backbone he shows in this chapter, may I remind you that HE IS IN FREAKIN' GRYFFINDOR!?! And if you want to call it on Snape...dude, reread. There's a reason. __Also, if you leave me reviews, I will love you forever and ever. I swear they make me update faster.)_

* * *

Chapter 4: Finding Time 

The next thirty words that ran through James's mind were swears. "Wormtail, go and freeze the Willow. I think Moony's going to Change."

Peter's eyes widened. "_Now_? But it's—he's not supposed to—"

"Well, he _is_. Look."

Still unconscious, Remus whimpered softly; his hair had already gone dark and lank from sweat, and had lengthened considerably; he had gone from pale to flushed and back again, and was presently sporting a corpse-like pallor; his ears looked very slightly pointed.

"We've got to get him out of the castle," James said, chewing his bottom lip nervously.

Sirius gave him a solemn nod, but Peter looked slightly annoyed. "Don't you need _my_ help?"

"Wormtail, you've got the upper body strength of a malnourished toddler," James said evenly. "Go and freeze the Willow."

Peter frowned at him, but made no further objections. Seconds later a tiny gray-black blur hurtled off down the hallway, squeaking indignantly.

James turned to Sirius, who was shaking his head. "How _are_ we going to get him out of here?" he asked.

James was rooting through his bag. "This," he said, tugging at something that seemed to be stuck, "should help."

The Invisibility Cloak was pulled loose, but Sirius looked no less worried. "That's going to look a bit weird, Prongs," he said hesitantly.

"Class isn't even half over," James said, already in the process of draping the cloak over Remus. "No one is even going to see us. We'll take that passage by the kitchens."

"Can't," said Sirius, look uncharacteristically worried. "Blocked it off this morning when you set off that Dungbomb. Filch is guarding it like his firstborn."

James swore quietly. "How about the one near the one-eyed witch? If we go out through Honeydukes—"

"Oh, that'll go over brilliantly," Sirius replied. "'Excuse me, do you mind if we drag this werewolf through your sweet shop?'"

"I don't see you with any clever ideas!"

"I was just—"

"James?" said a tiny voice from several feet below them. "Sirius?"

The two boys dropped instantly to the floor. "Moony!"

"Are you all right?" asked James.

Remus laughed weakly. "Of course not, you prat. I'm…turning into a bloody werewolf…" He stopped and coughed viciously, frowning at the helpless look his friends gave him. "Just…get me out of here…before someone sees…_please."_

James swore again, this time not bothering to lower his voice. "Moony, don't you go and pass out again!"

Remus clutched at his own stomach and groaned miserably, his entire face contorting as he twisted back and forth. James tried to pull the Cloak back over him.

"At least hold still."

"It _hurts_…"

James bit the inside of his cheek, forcing himself to keep his face calm. Remus would experience nothing like the painless, effortless transformation Peter had undergone minutes before, and James felt half-sick at having to watch his friend in that condition.

"I know it does," he said softly. "Come on, you'll be fine, you haven't even yelled at us today…"

"Any special reason you're whispering words of comfort to the floor, Potter?" said the voice of the person they least wanted to deal with at the moment.

"Fortunately for you, Snivellus, I have neither the time nor the energy to hex you as you deserve to be hexed," said James, his teeth gritted in annoyance, "so you've got a blissful four-second window to get the _hell_ out of my sight before I _murder_ you."

"That's Lupin, isn't it?" Snape said instantly. "He's under that cloak thing of yours. Which means—but not for another week—but he _is_—"

"None of your bloody business, Snivellus. Leave. _Now_."

"What are you doing out of class then, if it's not him?" Snape insisted, curiosity overcoming the desire to not have his face punched in.

"I might ask you the same."

"_I_ am returning a book to Professor Slughorn. _I_ have a legitimate reason to be out in the corridor."

"_You_ are going to be beaten to a pulp if you don't shut your astoundingly slimy mouth and get out of our way," Sirius growled.

"I was only going to say," said Snape icily, "that if that _is_ Lupin, and he _is_ Changing…" He spat out the next several words as though he didn't like the taste of them: "…then I'll help you get him out of here."

This did not seem to fit with James's understanding of the universe. "_What?_"

Snape folded his arms and glared, apparently not prepared to say this more than once.

"I could swear I heard you say—"

"Do you think I want that _thing_ running round the place where—" his black eyes flicked sideways, in the direction of Slughorn's classroom "—my friends live?"

Sirius gave him a murderous look. "Remus is _not_ a 'thing', you foul, greasy little—"

James signaled for silence. "Look, we appreciate the sentiment, Sniv—Snape," he couldn't quite bring himself to use anything more polite Snape's actual last name, "but the only thing we need right now is a place to stash a werewolf, a stag and a dog the size of a small bear. Unless you know where—"

"Yes," said Snape. "I do."

Sirius was intensely annoyed by this. "We don't need _his_ help," he hissed in James's ear while Snape studied his fingernails and pretended not to hear them.

James was silent for almost a full minute. He certainly didn't _want_ Snape's assistance, but whether he _needed_ it or not was another matter. Finally, giving Snape a sharp, impatient look, he said, "All right. Where?"

"There's a room on the seventh floor," he said, looking quite as annoyed as James and Sirius. "If you can get him there, no one stands a chance of finding you, even if they're looking."

There was another minute of silence in which Sirius glared daggers at James for getting him into this situation. "There's a passage by the great hall that comes out up there," he said after a long pause.

Snape nodded curtly and turned on his heel, intent on making as little eye contact as possible. "This way, then," he said with something that sounded like a sigh.

OoOoOo

Severus Snape studied a massive tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy with expertly feigned interest. He had been doing so for perhaps fifteen minutes when he said very, very quietly and, it seemed, to no one in particular, "And _don't_ tell anyone about this," and marched very stiffly down the corridor.

"Who does he think we're going to tell?" said a voice with no visible source. "Like we'd go around bragging about the bundle of laughs we had…"

James pushed his way out from behind a statue after Sirius, eying the stretch of wall opposite them with a grim expression.

"Is it just me that thinks that looks like a bloody broom cupboard?" asked Sirius after a moment.

"Dammit," muttered James, a bit breathlessly as he was still dragging a thrashing Remus along behind him. "I _knew_ he wasn't going to be any help!"

"Wonderful," Sirius grumbled as he threw open the door. "Bloody fantastic. How is Remus—how are _we_—how are _any_ of us going to do _anything_ in a stupid sodding—"

Sirius stared blankly for minute as James dropped Remus on the floor and promptly forgot he existed.

"I love this castle," said James immediately.

The room was, in fact, enormous.

"This is mad," Sirius said, looking somewhere between curious and angry. "I _know_ I've been in here, but it didn't look anything like—"

"Shut up and help me," James grunted. He was trying without success to heave Remus over to the massive four-post bed that monopolized a far corner. Sirius wasn't listening.

"It was _right here_," he went on. "But it was all filled with things…I had this box I was keeping them in…"

"Keeping what—_Stupefy!_"

The red light seemed to snap Sirius back to attention. "What the _hell_ are you doing?"

"He's easier move like this," said James with a shrug. "And it stops him trying to gnaw my arm off, doesn't it?"

Again, Sirius was distracted, this time by a large wooden case James hadn't noticed was there. Sirius was backing away from it like it might explode.

James left the immobile Remus half on the bed and half off it and bent low over the box to study it. "Where'd this come fr—?"

"Nowhere. It's nothing. Don't open it," Sirius said before the question could even be asked.

"Since when are you afraid of furnishings, Padfoot?" James snickered.

"I'm not afraid of it," Sirius said flatly. "Just don't open the bloody box."

James shook his head, still with a slight hint of laughter.

The box exploded, more or less.

OoOoOo

"You could have told me," said James several minutes later. He was cleaning the soot off his glasses and Sirius was looking as sullen as James had ever seen him.

"I did," Sirius said, staring rather fixedly at a spot some three feet to James's right for no reason that was readily apparent. "About…six years ago. 'My whole family's been in Slytherin.' Couldn't make it much clearer, could I?"

James frowned. "Well, yeah…but I never thought…I mean, that must be a Howler a week since you got here!"

Sirius smiled dully. "Only when Mum's in a good mood. Usually it's two." He looked briefly at James and then looked away again just as quickly. "You see why I'm not going back there."

Dumfounded, James said nothing for a full minute. "You're _what_?"

"Stupid, right?" Sirius said with an insincere laugh. "Knew you'd think so. But I'm not setting foot in that house again, I promise you that."

James blinked at him. "Everyone has it out with their parents at some point, mate, you can't just—"

Judging by the look on his friend's face, this had been entirely the wrong thing to say.

"_Everyone_?" Sirius said in a low voice. "And I suppose _everyone _goes home to have a mad house elf burn half their things to get the 'stench of Mudblood'—" James tensed visibly at the word, but Sirius plowed on without noticing, "—off of them? No? How many lectures about how his friends are scum that ought to be exterminated do you think _Peter_ has had to sit through? How many nights do you think _Remus _had to spend sleeping in the boiler room for talking to Muggles?" His eyes narrowed. "When's the last time _your_ Mum told you she wished you'd never been born?" He gave the same high, constricted laugh he had before, looking at James through the fingers he had spread over his face. "You don't know how lucky you are."

James said the only thing he could think of.

"You're staying at my place."

Sirius laughed in earnest, and within the next few seconds a stag and a shaggy black thing more like a bear than the dog it was supposed to be had settled down to wait for the werewolf's awakening.


	5. Desperate Times

**Disclaimer**: I have started sleeping with a copy of Deathly Hallows under my pillow in an attempt to absorb J.K.'s brilliance, but as this hasn't worked, I still do not own Harry Potter.

_(A/N: As the authoress is cowering in fear of impending flames, I, her personal muse , (or as she would have it, "that lazy bastard") have been instructed to relay the following information._

_1. Yes, Remus really did mean to say "stupidest stupid". Because James says a lot of stupid things._

_2. She knows it is short and took forever, and she is at least moderately sorry for that._

_3. She took some liberities with the concept of time dilation and invites you to deal with them or do a complicated activity involving a lot of expletives that for the sake of common decency I will not repeat._

_Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem._

_Yours with Moderate Sincerity,_

_Eden the Muse)_

* * *

Chapter 5: Desperate Times

"The problem," said Remus many hours later, "is time dilation. And it's getting worse."

His friends' blank, disinterested faces stared back at him, and Remus sighed enormously. "You've got absolutely no idea what that is."

"None whatsoever."

"But it sounds awful," Peter said consolingly. His discontent at having been left alone in the Shrieking Shack for several hours had evaporated the minute they'd showed him the room they'd discovered in his absence; changing once again to accommodate them, it now bore a startling resemblance to the Gryffindor common room.

"Does it?" Sirius said with a yawn. He didn't sound very bothered by the idea.

"Are you ever actually planning on telling us what you're on about, Moony?" asked James impatiently.

Remus ground his molars in irritation. "Are you actually planning on _listening_ this time?"

"Only if you promise to drag it out for ages with over-dramatic pauses every three or four seconds," said Sirius. "I do _so_ love having no idea what's going on."

"Shut _up_," Remus snapped. "And listen." He paused, trying to ignore Sirius's smug grin. "All right. We can tell from yesterday that the loop is starting to affect us more than it used to." Again with the blank looks. Remus scowled. "Do I usually Change in the middle of the afternoon?"

"No," said Peter, though the question was clearly rhetorical.

"And it took ages," Sirius remarked thoughtfully. "Loads longer than usual."

"Exactly," said Remus, relieved they were catching on. "Time is starting to distort around us. I don't know how we're going to stop it speeding up or slowing down or when it's going to—_what_?"

Peter had his hand raised for some reason. "I'm sorry! It's just—I think someone's outside, I heard—"

James rolled his eyes. "I told you what Snivellus said, Wormtail. Hardly anyone even knows this place is here. Shut up and let Remus get on with it."

Remus cleared his throat and continued, "Well, it's only going to get worse. We've got to do something about that—oh for Merlin's sake, Peter, you don't need to put your bloody hand up!"

"Sorry! But I think I heard—"

"The sound of your own paranoia?" Sirius asked politely. "Shut up worrying, Wormtail. It's distracting me from Moony's fascinating explanation."

Remus threw his hands up and snapped, "If we don't work out a way to fix that sodding Time-Turner, we're all completely buggered, all right?"

The other three blinked in astonishment. Remus wasn't much for swearing.

"Bloody hell, Moony, calm _down_," James said.

"Why should I? Panicking is the only reasonable option at this point!" He was breathing heavily and shouting without having noticed he was doing either. "I don't know what to do! I have no bloody idea how to fix that thing, I hardly even know how it works and being calm won't make a damn bit of difference and—and—" He stopped abruptly and tried to compose himself. "What are we supposed to do now?"

The three least used and most unlikely words in James's vocabulary suddenly decided to come out of his mouth. "Turn ourselves in?"

Sirius looked at him, and James smirked minutely. "Only joking. Cheer up, Moony. We don't get top marks for just anything. We'll come up with something."

Remus nodded vaguely, not altogether reassured. "We'll have to," he said, and sank back into his chair to think.

OoOoOo

It was another two hours before the beginnings of a plan began to form in James's head. "I don't suppose—" He let a thoughtful pause hang for a moment, then said, "Do you think McGonagall still has a Time-Turner?"

Sirius looked up, slightly startled. "What?"

"In her office. If we could get it—"

"_No_," Remus said immediately.

"Why not?"

Remus sucked his breath in irritably. "That might actually be the _stupidest_ stupid thing I've ever heard you say."

"What have we got to lose at this stage? Even if it goes horribly wrong, we'll only end up in the dormitory again," Sirius put in. "So it's really nothing to worry about."

Remus did not look any less annoyed. "Has it at any point occurred to you that doing the exact same thing that got us into all this trouble in the first place may not be the best of ideas?"

"Look, if we want to know how to fix a broken Time-Turner, we're going to need to know what a working one is like first, aren't we?" said James insistently.

Remus sighed. There was really no point in arguing, as James always seemed to get his way in the end.

The minute they touched the floor on the other side of the unassuming doorway, they found they were touching the floor in the dormitory.

Peter at least managed this time without being sick, though he still seemed to be having a minor asthma attack for several minutes afterward.

"That really is the weirdest room I've ever been in," he said when he'd caught his breath.

James shrugged as he changed out of his pajamas in into his robes. There was still a whole day's worth of redundant lessons before they could put their plan into action.

OoOoOo

"You had _all_ day and you still couldn't come up with anything better than the toilets? _Again_?"

"What're you complaining about, Moony? It it got her out of the office, didn't it?"

"I will never understand you propensity for repeating plans that _don't work_," Remus muttered.

"Like Padfoot said," James responded, a bit distractedly as he was in the process of removing his Invisibility Cloak at the time, "does it really matter if we get caught?"

"I just think—"

"OW! What in the _hell_—?"

James held a hand to his bleeding face and whirled around, whipping out his wand.

Remus put his arm up to keep James from charging at the boy who had suddenly appeared without any of them noticing. "He _did_ help us," he said very quietly.

"Not as far as he knows," Sirius said bitterly. "He won't remember it anyway. Don't see why we should leave him alone now."

Remus tried his luck with Snape. "Look, this is the one time he hasn't done anything to you. Can't you just leave off each other for once?"

Snape's black eyes flared. "I'll leave off _him_ when he leaves off Lily Evans!" He immediately flushed, clearly not having meant to say this.

Remus sighed and backed away. James was more likely to eat his cauldron than let a comment like that slide.

"Lily Evans?" James said in a dangerous tone, eyes flashing and wand raised. "Lily Evans can't stand you, nor can anyone else, you greasy little git. She _hates_—"

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Snape roared suddenly.

James was grateful for the lightning fast reflexes years of Seeking had helped him develop, as he managed to throw up a Shield Charm in the last second before Snape's spell collided.

The flash as the spell rebounded was bright enough to blind James for several seconds. The next thing he saw was blood. A _lot_ of blood. Entirely too much, in fact, for someone to leave on the floor without being dead or very near it.

He could only hope it was the latter.


	6. Out of Time

**Disclaimer**: Is Sirius Black still dead? Then I don't own Harry Potter.

_(A/N: I know this is the slowest update in the history of all that has ever been slow, but this is somehow not my fault._

_If you can think of a good reason why this is not my fault, please notify me and I shall begin using it as an excuse immediately.)_

* * *

Chapter 6: Out of Time

"James Potter, don't you move a bloody muscle!" Sirius shouted.

"Don't be stupid! He's going to die! Remus, help—"

Sirius threw up an arm and hit James square in the chest. "You touch him, you're responsible. If we just wait—"

"Then he'll _die_, and I'll have killed him. I'd rather get in trouble, thanks."

Sirius didn't remove his hand. "They could send you to Azkaban, James. That's what you want?"

"Remember that bit about being 'brave at heart', Sirius? That means I'd rather get in trouble for something that wasn't my fault than let someone die. Even Snivellus."

Sirius scowled intensely for a good thirty seconds, then sighed. "Complete rubbish, being noble. What to we do with him, then?"

This was where they ran into a bit of a problem. At the rate Snape was losing blood, he'd be dead long before they reached the hospital wing.

"Well," Remus said slowly and as though he'd rather not be suggesting it, "there is one thing we could do."

"Oh, brilliant, Moony, why don't you tell us next week when you've built up the proper amount of dramatic tension?" Sirius said angrily.

Remus cringed a little and spoke very quietly. "We _are_ right near McGonagall's office."

The outburst was just as Remus had expected, as was its source.

"Absolutely bloody not!" Sirius shouted immediately. "We are _not_—we're completely capable of handling this ourselves—Moony, you like that medical stuff, do something!"

"I don't think chocolate is going to help at a time like this, Sirius," said James. His smile kept sliding off his face no matter how hard he tried to keep it fixed.

"I wasn't going to give him chocolate," Remus snapped. The frown he'd been wearing for the last four days became even more pronounced. "But I might as well at this stage. James?"

James let a long breath. "Always down to me, isn't it?" He tried to keep his voice light, but didn't quite manage it. "Well…let's see what McGonagall has to say, shall we?"

"Don't suppose there's anyway to talk you out of this?" Sirius grumbled.

"None whatsoever," said James as he hoisted Snape upwards. "Up you get, Snivellus, no time for a lie down now."

"James," Remus began warningly.

"No more boring rubbish from you, Moony," James said before he got out another word. "Everything's under control."

Of course, not much good had ever come of people thinking everything was under control.

OoOoOo

"Er…"

"Don't say it, Moony."

"But this is really taking—"

"I know."

"And there's quite a lot of—"

"I _know._"

"And it's not supposed to—"

James stopped. This involved very little effort, as ten minutes walking had only gotten them about halfway down the corridor. "Go on, say 'I told you' _one bloody time_—"

"I can't move anymore," Peter whined. Sirius tried to hit him but couldn't move his arm far enough.

"Shut _up_, Wormtail. You weren't even helping move him."

Remus looked at the ceiling. Then he looked at the floor. Then he looked at James. Then he smiled.

"Do you want to hear my boring rubbish _now_, James?"

James rubbed at his temples and give Remus a miserable look. "Any chance you won't gloat incessantly through this whole explanation?"

Remus gave him a strained smile. "None whatsoever."

James struggled to actually listen as Remus went off into lecture mode and talked for at least four minutes straight without a single pause.

"Stop—_stop_—Remus, shut _up_!"

Remus blinked, slightly startled. "What?"

"Dunno if you've noticed, but there's someone _dying_ here. Could you give us the _short_ version?"

"Can you think of anywhere we might find a singularity, James?" Remus snapped.

James was silent for an unreasonable length of time. "A what?"

"A singularity," Remus repeated very slowly and angrily. "The singularity which is slowing down time—and us. Which is why Peter can't move and why Sirius can't hit him and why we are, as I have said, all _completely buggered_. Short enough for you?"

"You're shouting, Remus," Sirius said lightly.

Remus fell back against the wall and sighed, putting his face in his hands and letting out a noise that was a mixture of a sigh and a groan. "I don't even know where to look."

"Don't look like that," Sirius said. "It's depressing."

"What does a singu-thingy look like, anyway?" Peter asked.

"Doesn't look like much of anything." The other boys looked at him with a complete lack of understanding. "I mean, you can't really see it, but you'll know it if you do. It's the exact opposite of …anything."

"Moony, what _are_ you on about?"

Remus sighed again, but didn't lift his head. "Ready for another awful idea?"

OoOoOo

"Er…Sugar Quills."

"Acid Pops!"

"Ice Mice?"

"Cockroach…oh bloody hell, this never going to work."

"Shut up and keep guessing."

The gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office remained stoic as three teenage boys shouted the names of every candy they had ever heard of at it. A fourth was seated on the stone floor trying to keep the fifth from bleeding to death.

"How's he holding up, Remus?" Sirius asked concernedly, separating himself as best he could from the shouting going on next to him.

"Didn't think you cared," Remus said in a low voice. Sweat stood out on his brow as clearly as it did on Snape's; he was starting to panic.

"I care about James," said Sirius. "I care about you. If that git dies, we're all in for it.

"I don't just let people die, Sirius."

"I know," Sirius said with a small laugh. Then his face grew solemn for probably about the third time since they'd known each other. "But if it doesn't work like that…if something happens…"

Remus looked up. "What?"

Sirius swallowed thickly. "It's better if I—"

"I fear I'm in for rather a long explanation," said the perplexingly pleasant voice of Albus Dumbledore.

Sirius turned around, stood up straighter than he had in ten years, and said very clearly and carefully, "I did it, Professor. I killed him."

This had no visible effect on Dumbledore's expression. "I think we had better get Mr. Snape to the hospital wing," he said after several long moments. He muttered something that sounded very much like "pixie stix"(whatever those were) to the gargoyle and waved his wand at Snape's profoundly motionless figure so that James no longer had to carry him. "Mr. Potter, if you would—?"

James started as Dumbledore motioned a hand at his neck. "You know about—?"

"There will be time for questions later. This is a rather important matter."

Dumbfounded, James lifted the Time-Turner from his neck in a motion that seemed to take forever.

With a smile that was nevertheless quite unnerving, Dumbledore took it.

And threw it into the fireplace.

"Not one of your better ideas, Mr. Potter."

"Professor, I can explain—"

"No doubt you can, Mr. Potter. But now is not the time."

The fireplace flared suddenly green, and before James could get a word in edgeways, both Snape and Dumbledore had disappeared through it.

"How did—what did—how can he—what in the—?"

This went on for a long while before James finally said, "He's right."

Sirius gave him a questioning look. "About what?"

"That really _wasn't_ one of my better ideas."


	7. Time After Time

**Disclaimer**: If you know a method by which Harry Potter might pass in to my possession, please let me know.

_(A/N: Upside to being deathly ill: having the astounding amout of free time neccessary to bang out two chapters in one day. And now you all get the chance to see how unutterably awful I am at writing endings! I present to you the final, half-assed chapter in which nothing very much happens. Did you expect any less?_

_If you really did read this long...I am so very very sorry._

_Oh, one more thing. Due the ceaseless mockery of one of my friends, I would like to point out that Sirius and Remus are NOT having a 'moment' in this chapter. They are having a conversation. Some people just read too much dojinshi..._

_Wait, I forgot to say that if you haven't read DH (and you haven't read that but you ARE reading this, there is something very wrong with you) this will completely and utterly ruin a major plot point. But if you've left your house since July, you know about it already.)_

* * *

Chapter 7: Time After Time 

"Moony, you're giving me a headache," Sirius said dully.

"But it's completely brilliant! I'd never have figured it out, Dumbledore's really—"

"You sound like Peter."

"Aren't you the least bit interested—?"

"No."

"But—"

"Remus, I do not want to think about this ever again. We are going to be expelled."

Remus stared very pointedly at the ground. "That was very…noble of you, by the way. Even if he wasn't actually dead."

Sirius looked at the ceiling. "Not _that_ noble. More like…sensible. It's better if only one of us if gets in trouble. And no one would mind if _I_ didn't come home for a few years. You and James and Peter…you're really all I have." He glanced uncomfortably at Remus. "Visit me in prison?"

Remus hit him in the head, but he smiled as he did it. "You're an idiot. And you're not going to prison." He paused as though he had just noticed something very important. "Er…where's James?"

OoOoOo

"I really am sorry," James said. "I'm saying it now because we both know damn well I'll never say it when you're conscious." He put his hand down on one of hospital wing tables and leaned over, holding his head with his free hand in a vague attempt to nurse the dull pain throbbing behind his eyes. "I don't like you. I'll never like you. But I didn't want you dead. I don't like hurting people. So, for what it's worth…well." He laughed.

"YOU!"

The shout nearly gave James a heart attack. When he turned around, he nearly had another one. "_Evans?_"

James froze. Lily's normally bright eyes had gone suddenly watery. Her wand was at James's throat. "What did you _do_ to him? I—I'll—"

"Miss Evans, if you wish to murder Mr. Potter, you will do it outside of my infirmary!"

Lily lowered her wand, but very slowly. "I'm here to see Severus Snape, Madam Pomfrey."

Madam Pomfrey gestured angrily at Snape's bed, giving them both a look of utmost disapproval before leaving again.

"He's not dead, you know," James said when she had gone. "He's only unconscious."

Lily blushed a little. "That's all right, then," she said. "I don't really want him to know I was here."

"Me neither."

Tears tracked steadily down her cheeks; James fought back an urge to brush them away. "I don't want him thinking I've forgiven him. I haven't."

"Well," James said awkwardly, "he _did_ call you—"

"Don't you think I know what he called me?" She was crying in earnest now, great streaming tears that made James want to hit something very hard. "I remember it every day. It's not the sort of thing you forget." She bent low over the bed and James looked pointedly away as she kissed Snape's cheek. "But you were always my best friend, Sev. I haven't forgotten that either."

A sick jealousy roared in the pit of James's stomach. "I—I'll see you later, Evans."

Lily stood. "No, I think I'll let you walk me back to the common room, Potter."

"What?"

Lily cocked an eyebrow. "Don't you fancy me anymore?"

"That's not funny, Evans," James said with a scowl. "And you're still crying."

Lily shrugged. "Suit yourself."

James leaned back against the door as it closed after her.

For about eight seconds.

"_Evans_!"

Lily turned around so slowly James wasn't sure she was even going to stop. "Yes?"

"Er…" James hadn't actually planned on her doing anything other than telling him to bugger off. "Evans—Lily—I think—I've been wanting to tell you for a long time—"

"That you're incapable of putting sentences together?"

James laughed nervously. "No…I wanted to tell you that I really do fancy you. And I know you think I'm a complete git and you've been turning me down as long as I can remember but—but would it matter if I told you that all the showing off and mussing up my hair and saying all those stupid things and everything—that maybe all that is because you were the one I was trying to impress?"

Lily just looked at him.

"And—and maybe it's all because I'm a bit in love with you, Lily."

She was silent for a long time. Too long.

"Right. Nevermind. Sorry. I'll just—"

"I don't think I'd mind if you asked me out again. Not now. But maybe…" She paused, looking thoughtful. "Ask me again when you've grown up a bit." And then, as she stated to walk away, "I think you're nearly there, James."

One the one hand, she still hadn't said she'd go out with him. On the other, well…she had called him James.

He walked away with what could only be described as a spring in his step.

OoOoOo

"Will you stop with that bloody look, Prongs?"

"What look?"

"The pathetic glazed one you've got on. We're about as sick of hearing about Evans as we are about Dumbledore."

"How did he know? How does he _always_ know?"

"He's just a weird bloke, I think."

Remus frowned. "Shut up, Padfoot. And you should be glad he let us off."

Sirius merely yawned and rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know, you've told me a hundred thousand times by now. I thanked him, didn't I?"

"Actually, what you said was, 'bloody hell, that was a close one'."

"Knew it was something like that."

"Have I mentioned recently that you are a complete git?"

"Twice this morning."

James wasn't listening. He was unlikely ever to listen again.

Sirius cast a despairing look at James before turning back to Remus. "That's it. No girls for me. Ever. I'm going to have…a motorbike."

Remus sighed. "Don't you think you've got other things to worry about?"

"Not on the last day of term I don't. And shut up. You're ruining the lovely weather."

Remus went back to his unhappy study of his exam results as Sirius fell back on the lakeside grass to take his third nap of the day. "How do you two keep beating me Astronomy when I've got to make those stupid charts just to stop myself mauling people?"

James shrugged. "That's what you get for applying yourself, Moony."

"Just wait, next year's going to be mad," Remus said sullenly. "I hear N.E.W.T.s are ten times as bad as O.W.L.s. It'll be awful."

"You were fine in O.W.L.s," said Sirius. "It's only people like Wormtail that've got something to—oh, come on, I was only—if you start crying, I'll never speak to you again, Peter." Remus turned to James in an effort to keep from laughing.

"I don't know," he said, half to himself. "It's only one more year here, isn't it? A year, and then…" He gestured grandly, seeming to indicate the world at large. "It's sort of…scary."

James looked out to where Remus had pointed. It was a direction in which he had often looked without ever paying any real attention. The sky rolled out endlessly toward the horizon, cascading over the mountains that framed the skyline and duplicated on the surface of the lake beneath it, in which he could just make out the shady figure of the giant squid Lily Evans had once sworn she'd rather go out with than him.

He thought of the beautiful bright green eyes of the girl with whom he had fallen so suddenly and profoundly in love.

He thought of the scrawny, sallow boy he'd tortured relentlessly since the moment they'd laid eyes on each other, and he thought that maybe he hadn't deseved it every time, and that maybe his hatred of Snape had eased just the tiniest bit and was now merely exceptionally intense dislike.

He thought of what Lily had said to him the last time he'd seen her… _"Ask me again when you've grown up a bit."_

He thought that next year, she would see that he had. That next year, her answer would be yes.

Remus had started to think that he'd fallen asleep.

"I think you're worried over nothing, mate," James said just as Remus had been about to begin prodding him awake. "I think next year's going to be brilliant."

* * *

_(a further A/N: I know not of these "plot holes" of which you speak. Possibly because my ability to write proper endings fell down one some time ago. Failure to complain/encourage me in the form of scornful/joyously praise-filled reveiws will only lead to my becoming even more lazy in the future. Assuming that is actually possible.)_

_(a further, further A/N: After much reflection and sifting through my mother's CDs, I have changed the title of this chapter. It seemed to make some sort of sense at the time.)_


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